UN reiterates pledge to protect ethnic minorities in East Timor
26 May -- The head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today reiterated the mission's commitment to protecting ethnic minorities from persecution in the newly independent territory.
"I have said before that we have 'zero tolerance' for violence," Administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello said. "We also have zero tolerance for harassment, intimidation, threats and other forms of persecution against ethnic Chinese, Muslims and Indonesian nationals."
Mr. Vieira de Mello stressed that East Timor had been a multi-ethnic society long before the UN mission arrived, and many of its minorities had well-established rights to live there, even though regulations on immigration, residency and nationality had yet to be adopted.
Referring to the territory's existing law, he said anyone born in - or a resident of -- East Timor before 25 October 1999 and currently living there had the right to remain. "We can also reassure all those in East Timor who were legal residents here under the Indonesian administration and who decided to stay to help build a new nation that they cannot be evicted," he added.
Indonesian passport holders who arrived in East Timor before the border control regulation was passed in February 2000 also had the right to remain, but if they left the territory, they might have to apply for a permit to return, according to UNTAET. Indonesian nationals who own residences in Indonesia and East Timor, and who left during the 1999 violence, must apply for a permit to return, but may not be denied entry on the basis of national or ethnic origin.
"The only grounds on which people in any of the above categories could be expelled would be that they posed a clear risk to national security, and even then the expulsion could only take place after a full hearing in which those concerned would have a right to appeal," Mr. Vieira de Mello said.
In other news, the UN mission reported Friday that a team of health professionals will visit tomorrow the village of Beacu in Viqueque, where a 23-year old woman died from Japanese Encephalitis on 16 May. The group will take blood samples to determine the extent of the infection and formulate an appropriate strategy to deal with the disease, which is rare among humans, but fatal in 25 to 40 per cent of the cases.
